Change Your Focus to the Gaps is a simple, discreet meditation that can be practiced anywhere, without posture requirements or privacy. Its essence is to stop identifying with thoughts and desires by calmly noting their arising, their brief presence, and their passing. When the content subsides, attention turns to the interval between thoughts and desires—an unoccupied space where the felt sense of 'I' does not arise.
Rooted in the Buddha’s direct method of noting, this technique retains Osho’s poetic emphasis: shift your gestalt from the filled spaces of mind to the luminous gaps. Thoughts and desires are like moving clouds; between them the open sky is revealed. By considering this movement without being moved, you dissolve into the beauty of the gap—silent, unperturbed, and real.
Phase Instructions
Preparation: Simple Presence Anywhere
Sit or stand comfortably, or continue your ordinary activity. Let the breath be natural. No special posture or privacy is required. Do not try to stop thoughts or desires. Just be quietly available, willing to observe what appears in the mind and senses.
Noting Aloud: Arising, Present, Disappearing
When a thought or desire appears, note it plainly. If circumstances allow, speak softly out loud; otherwise, verbalize in a low voice or whisper. Use clear phrases to mark the three phases: 'Now a thought is arising... now it has arisen... now it is disappearing.' Do the same with desires: 'A desire is arising... it has arisen... it is disappearing.' For example, while walking, a beautiful car passes: 'I see a car. The mind says it is beautiful. A desire to possess has arisen.' Keep the tone factual, free of judgment or analysis. Notice how verbal noting creates an immediate distance: you are the one who notes, not the content being noted.
Silent Noting: Non-Identification
Once the noting is steady, let it become entirely internal. Quietly register each event in the same three steps—arising, present, disappearing—without following its story. Thoughts and desires may continue, but you do not merge with them. Recognize: when there is no desire and no thought to identify with, the ego-sense cannot arise. Simply note whatever happens and, when it ends, note that it has ended.
Rest in the Interval: Consider and Dissolve
After a thought or desire passes, turn attention to the interval before the next one. However brief, there is a gap. Rest in that unoccupied space. Sense how, in the gap, there is no 'I.' Let the mind be like an open sky seen between passing clouds. Consider this unmoving stillness amid movement, and gently dissolve into its beauty. Do not try to lengthen the gap; simply recognize it and relax into it whenever it appears.
Integration: Shift the Gestalt to the Gaps
Carry the practice into daily life—walking, looking, working, reading. Let your emphasis move from the 'filled spaces' (the words, images, impulses) to the 'unfilled spaces' (the white between words, the silence between thoughts, the pause between desires). Be indifferent to the content’s pull; be interested in the interval. Thoughts and desires come and go like shadows; remain unperturbed, as you were before they arose. Through these intervals you dissolve into the ultimate beauty, goodness, and truth.
Core Benefits
- Promotes detachment from thoughts and desires.
- Facilitates awareness of the unoccupied spaces between thoughts.
- Encourages dissolution into silence and peace.
- Enhances presence and mindfulness.
- Reveals the underlying real nature of being unperturbed.
What Osho Said About This Technique
What is meditation?
A consciousness that is focused only on words is non-meditative and a consciousness that is focused only on gaps is meditative. Whenever you become aware of the gaps, the words will be lost. If you observe carefully, you will not find words; you will only find a gap. You can feel the difference between two words, but you cannot feel the difference between two gaps. Words are always plural and the gap is always singular: "the" gap. They merge and become one. Meditation is a focusing on the gap. Then, the whole gestalt changes. Another thing is to be understood. If you are looking at the gestalt picture and your concentration is focused on the old lady, you cannot see the other picture. But if you continue to concentrate on the old lady -- if you go on focusing on her, if you become totally attentive to her -- a…Read the full discourse →
Beloved Osho, what if there are not any gaps?
Look within, it has never been so and you cannot be an exception. All seekers who have gone within have gone through the gaps. The gaps are there, but you have not looked and hence the question has an 'if'. Please don't ask 'if' questions. I am not talking about theories, I am talking about facts. It is as if somebody says: What if there is no heart within? But the if is just speculative. Close your eyes and you will hear the heartbeat. If you are to ask the question, the heart is bound to be there. If you are there to raise this question, the gaps are bound to be there. Without gaps, thinking cannot exist. Between two words the gap is a necessity; otherwise the two words will not be separate, they will overlap. Between two sentences there is a gap -- necessarily so, otherwise there will…Read the full discourse →
Beloved Osho, would you please tell us more about what the sufis call "adab"? Is it a "tariqa"... A method that extends beyond the physical presence of the master, becoming part of the innermost being of the disciple and reflecting, in every action of his daily?
Radha Mohammed, yes, adab is a tariqa, a method. It is the beginning of something very immense, of something utterly incomprehensible to the intellect. It is the first step of a great eternal pilgrimage. To be with the Master is simply a lesson in how to be with God. That's why down the ages the Master has been called "God". It is very symbolic, it is a metaphor. The word "metaphor" is beautiful. Meta means beyond, phor means going: that which takes you beyond. The Master is a metaphor -- he takes you beyond himself. He is just a beginning, a jumping-board. To be with the Master is nothing but a discipline in how to be with God. God is not visible, the Master is visible; it is easier to learn from the visible and then move to the invisible. Have you looked into children's books? We have to make…Read the full discourse →
When wolves were discovered in the village near master shoju's temple, shoju entered the graveyard nightly for one week and sat in zazen. This put a stop to the wolves' prowling.
OVERJOYED, THE VILLAGERS ASKED HIM TO DESCRIBE THE SECRET RITES HE HAD PERFORMED. 'I DIDN'T HAVE TO RESORT TO SUCH THINGS,' HE SAID, 'NOR COULD I HAVE DONE SO. WHILE I WAS IN ZAZEN A NUMBER OF WOLVES GATHERED ROUND ME, LICKING THE TIP OF MY NOSE, AND SNIFFING MY WINDPIPE, BUT BECAUSE I REMAINED IN THE RIGHT STATE OF MIND, I WASN'T BITTEN. AS I KEEP PREACHING TO YOU, THE PROPER STATE OF MIND WILL MAKE IT POSSIBLE FOR YOU TO BE FREE IN LIFE AND DEATH, INVULNERABLE TO FIRE AND WATER. EVEN WOLVES ARE POWERLESS AGAINST IT. I SIMPLY PRACTICE WHAT I PREACH.' You cannot see both together. They are contradictory. They cannot be seen together. When you see the figure, the background disappears; when you see the background, the figure disappears. Mind has a limited capacity to know -- it cannot know the contradictory. That s why…Read the full discourse →
In summer when you see the entire sky endlessly clear enter such clarity. Shakti,
SEE ALL SPACE AS IF ALREADY ABSORBED IN YOUR OWN HEAD IN THE BRILLIANCE. WAKING, SLEEPING, DREAMING, KNOW YOU AS LIGHT. First try your imagination with small things: just that the body has become bigger or has become smaller. You can go both the ways. You are five feet six: feel you have become four feet, three feet, two feet, one foot; you have become just a seed. This is just a training; just a training so that you can feel whatsoever you want to feel. Your inner mind is absolutely free to feel; nothing can hinder it from feeling anything. It is your feeling. You can grow and you can be small. Suddenly you become aware that it is you. And if you can work well through this, you can come out of your body very easily. If you can grow and become small through imagination, you are capable…Read the full discourse →
Common Questions
Yes, it is a discreet practice without posture or privacy requirements.
No, you simply note the arising and passing of thoughts without getting attached.
The main focus is on the gaps between thoughts and desires.
The guide does not specify a duration, suggesting it can be practiced flexibly.